Once A Year
by Mikozume
Summary: "You're the sappiest person I know," Iwaizumi informed him. "Slow dancing is cliché." "But you love me anyway," Oikawa sang. "Besides, it was you who put the rose-petal trail on our hallway floor." "Shut up," he mumbled, going back to focusing on trying not to step on Oikawa's feet. -It's Oikawa's birthday and his boyfriends are determined to make the most of it.- Matsuhanaiwaoi


_"_ _Wake up,"_ Iwaizumi mumbled, jabbing Hanamaki in the side. He tousled Matsukawa's hair, poking them each once more for good measure. Oikawa managed to continue his legacy of being the absolute heaviest sleeper in the world, completely unaware.

Best case scenario, everything would go according to plan and Oikawa would be ecstatic. Worst case scenario, the apartment would catch on fire and Oikawa would be displeased. Iwaizumi would normally have made a joke along the lines of, _"_ _that's karma for being a little shit all the time,"_ but in all honesty, he was hoping that today would go by without a hitch.

Oikawa had single-handedly managed to do an awful lot of things in the lifetime that they'd known each other. Iwaizumi couldn't name a specific moment that he'd _met_ Oikawa, Oikawa had always been there, whether in the background or the main point of a memory, Oikawa was there. Maybe that was the reason that Iwaizumi couldn't honestly imagine being _without_ him. That meant that Iwaizumi had a lifetime's worth of _'_ _thanks to Oikawa'_ s.

Little things—thanks to Oikawa he read his favorite book series in sixth grade. Thanks to Oikawa he'd tried one of his favorite foods. Thanks to Oikawa he didn't have a need to sleep under fifty blankets at night (because Oikawa had a built-in heater, pretty much).

Big things—thanks to Oikawa, he'd played volleyball. Thanks to Oikawa, he met Matsukawa and Hanamaki. Thanks to Oikawa, he _dated_ Matsukawa and Hanamaki. Thanks to Oikawa, the three of them had possibly three of the best birthday's that they'd ever had.

It was an unspoken agreement that _of course_ they had to do something above and beyond for Oikawa's birthday.

That meant an early start.

Hanamaki and Matsukawa didn't seem to be in agreement with _that_ particular part of the plan.

Matsukawa groaned noisily and started to stretch, bapping Oikawa softly in the head. The other boy stirred ever-so-slightly, but didn't wake up. Iwaizumi smacked Mattsun's head, harshly muttering not to wake Oikawa up or the whole day would be thrown off.

Hanamaki slithered out of bed, blinking at Iwaizumi blearily and rubbing at his eyes. Matsukawa stared at them tiredly from in the bed, careful not to bump Oikawa when he worked his own way out of bed.

Iwaizumi held up a bag of groceries, opening the door to the bedroom as quietly as he could.

In the kitchen, Iwaizumi ran into his first potential predicament of the day. The fact that none of them could cook to save their lives made it a little bit hard to cook for Oikawa. Normally on one of their birthdays, Oikawa would be the one to cook for them. They'd let Oikawa assume that he'd just cook like normal for all of them, but _obviously_ that wasn't going to happen.

Oikawa slept, they tried to learn how they could _possibly_ make breakfast.

"You're going to burn it," Matsukawa mumbled, the only one out of the three who still looked half asleep after an hour of attempts. Hanamaki rolled his eyes halfheartedly, swatting Matsukawa away and going back to his measly attempts at breakfast. What they'd managed to end up with was _passing_ at best. Still, Iwaizumi had to admit that he was a little bit proud of it.

(not that he'd admit that _out loud._ )

Google, the instructions on the back of the box and general common sense resulted in their measly attempt at breakfast. It was the best that it was going to get, though.

Matsukawa slammed the door to the bedroom open, which was enough to make Oikawa stir. Hanamaki, taking a gentler approach, walked over to the bed and practically draped himself over their sleeping boyfriend.

 _"_ _Happy birthday, Tooru,"_ he mumbled, looking ready to go back to bed himself. Oikawa blinked sleepily at Makki, a smile twitching onto his face. He seemed content to go back to bed with Hanamaki, wrapping his arms around his boyfriend and rolling over onto his side.

"Don't go back to bed," Iwaizumi flicked Hanamaki's ear, taking his place on their bed beside the other two. Matsukawa joined them on the other side, setting the food down. "We've got things to _do_ today."

Oikawa laughed sleepily into the pillow, sitting up and leaning forward to drape his arms around Iwaizumi, tapping their foreheads together and smirking. "Iwa-chan's taking today very seriously. Remind me—what's today again, that could _possibly_ be so _absolutely important_?"

Iwaizumi huffed slightly, rolling his eyes fondly and kissing Oikawa briefly. "Happy birthday, Tooru."

Iwaizumi gave up in his attempts at keeping Hanamaki awake, letting his boyfriend curl back up into the sheets and press his face into the pillows.

Oikawa got ready, and Iwaizumi could hear him humming to himself in the shower. It was a happy hum, whatever it was, but Iwaizumi was assuming that it was just something that he'd made up for himself.

Matsukawa tugged on a shirt, looking as awake as he ever did. Iwaizumi debated joining Hanamaki in the bed. He settled for flopping onto his back and closing his eyes.

Matsukawa must have decided that was unacceptable, seeing how he made his way onto the bed to straddle him and stare down at him.

"You aren't allowed to keep us up all morning and then fall asleep," he chided, leaning down and letting their noses touch. "Hypocrite."

Oikawa banged the door open, tsking noisily enough that Hanamaki jumped a foot in the air, finally looking awake.

"Getting off together without me on my birthday," he feigned offence, running a hand through his wet hair and looking all too coy for any of their good. "We'll see what _I_ have to say about that."

He shooed them out, claiming that he was going to get ready without any of their disturbance.

 _"_ _I just got clean—I'm not letting you all make me shower again! Save it for tonight,_ " His signature little wink tacked onto the end and a hair toss to finish the statement.

Iwaizumi was going to strangle him for this. _Yeah,_ it was his birthday, but _yeah_ that didn't mean that Iwaizumi was going to spend all day staring at his boyfriend dressed in _his shirt_ without being allowed to do something about it.

Oikawa, the innocent-looking bastard, had donned a tight pair of Matsukawa's jeans, a shirt of Iwaizumi's (a favorite, one that he'd had for a couple of years and that Oikawa _damn well knew_ was a favorite), hair slicked back and eyes done up with a thin black line of eyeliner.

He flashed them an innocent grin, sidling up to Hanamaki and pressing their lips together. He pulled back and grinned wider.

" _No,_ " Hanamaki nearly pouted. "Don't do this to our innocent, innocent souls."

"I've done nothing wrong," Oikawa replied coyly.

Iwaizumi tore his eyes away, deciding to stare at the ceiling instead. "Yeah, yeah. You torment us today, but we'll get you back eventually." Oikawa opened his mouth and Iwaizumi ignored the way that his eyes were bright with excitement and amusement, opting to clap his hand over his boyfriend's mouth before he could even say anything.

"We get it, we get it. Go finish getting ready, your hair is soaking me."

"My hair is soaking _me,_ Iwa-chan, but that's not the only—,"

" _Oikawa,_ "

When Oikawa showed up around the corner, his eyes were bright with amusement and he was laughing.

"Where'd you even get roses?" He asked, being careful not to step on the trail that they'd thrown together last-minute.

"That's not the point!" Matsukawa chided him, making a _go on_ gesture with his hands. "Keep going, then."

Oikawa made a placating gesture, still laughing. He took the last couple of steps towards them, eyes trailing after the roses and up onto the table where they led. Confusion light on his face, he glanced at Iwaizumi.

"What's—?"

"Just close your eyes," Hanamaki shifted, watching Oikawa. Matsukawa leaned forward and waited for Oikawa to do as he was asked, shutting his eyes somewhat hesitantly. Mattsun placed a hand over his eyes, ignoring the soft sound of protest that came from their boyfriend.

"No offense, but I gotta make sure, you sneaky piece of shit."

 _"_ _Matsu-chan!"_

He quieted when he felt the metal on his finger, eyes flipping open to stare at the palm of his boyfriend's hand.

Matsukawa removed his hand when Iwaizumi chimed in. "It's a promise ring," he explained hastily, making sure not to give the wrong idea. "Uh—it might be a little bit cheesy? But we decided to all get them, we really couldn't think of something better than—,"

" _Shush_ , Iwa-chan." Oikawa mumbled, looking down at it. The metal, still cold, was _just nearly_ as shiny as the three stones set in it. "One for each of you," he glanced up, all playfulness replaced by a soft look, the crocodile grin something fonder. "It's a perfect idea, seriously. I love it."

Matsukawa, looking slightly red, scratched the back of his neck. "Don't go all sappy, we've still got things to do."

Oikawa laughed again, and Iwaizumi couldn't help but notice that he was being honestly cheerful today—none of his usual snark disguised as innocence or his common bullshittery.

Oikawa had always made a big deal of birthdays. If there was a real, he'd never disclosed it. Still, they'd always seemed to be of some kind of importance to him. That only made it all the more of a reason to make today nothing but a good one for him.

Oikawa was as close to slouching as possible in a car, staring out the window. Some band that he liked was playing from his phone and he was in the middle of trying to convince Hanamaki of something or other. Hanamaki wasn't buying it, making an attempt at using logic to combat Oikawa's vague defenses of the subject.

Iwaizumi wasn't honestly sure if he was relieved to be escaping the argument when they got out of the car. It was far from the worst, and that made it borderline-bearable.

Oikawa, still in his rare, placated mood, tucked his hands in his pockets and walked around the front of the car to stand by them. Because cooking an _attempt_ at breakfast was the best that they would be able to do, they'd made a somewhat silent agreement that it would be a better idea to go out to eat than to make attempts at both lunch _and_ dinner that day.

"Dance with me," Oikawa asked out of nowhere, glancing up at one of the speakers above them that was playing something soft and slow.

"What? Now? Here?" Iwaizumi gave Oikawa a skeptical look.

Oikawa rested his chin on his boyfriend's shoulder. "Well, yeah! I don't see why not, and this is a good song."

"I'm gonna leave this one to you, Hajime," Matsukawa supplied helpfully, watching them from across the table like it was amusing to him.

"Why don't you dance with Issei? He's the one being a little shit."

"Dancing with Oikawa-san isn't a _punishment,_ Iwa-chan! It's an honor."

Iwaizumi sighed, shifting to stand up. Oikawa's grin grew bigger with the amusement that showed up in his face, like he hadn't really expected Iwaizumi to agree to it.

He probably wouldn't have, but they were the only ones sitting where they were and nobody seemed to be around to watch, anyway.

Not to mention, even if somebody was sitting there, Iwaizumi never would have stood a chance against those puppy eyes. What a cruel, cruel fate. He must have done something terrible in his past life to deserve this.

He made eye contact with Oikawa, not saying a word when he placed his hand on his boyfriend's waist.

"Oh?" Oikawa asked, sounding coy but placing his hand on Iwaizumi's shoulder all the same.

Iwaizumi let him start; he didn't know the first thing on dancing. Oikawa seemed to have a pretty decent idea of how this worked, though, setting a rhythm right away and glancing down at their feet to make sure his feet weren't going to get stepped on.

"You're the sappiest person I know," Iwaizumi informed him. "Slow dancing is a cliché."

"But you _love_ me anyway," Oikawa sang. "Besides, it was _Iwa-chan_ who put the rose-petal trail on our hallway floor."

"Shut up," he mumbled, going back to focusing on trying not to step on Oikawa's feet.

Oikawa seemed to not have any new remarks to make, because he settled into the easy silence that Iwaizumi had started. The song ended and something else came on, just as slow but sadder than the first. Oikawa offered the speakers a sideway glance, humming his displeasure.

"A sad song," he chided. "Unacceptable."

"If you weren't fine with it, you wouldn't still be dancing," Iwaizumi reminded him, sparing a look towards the table, where Hanamaki and Matsukawa were undoubtedly doing something dumb, leaning over Matsukawa's phone like that. "So it must not be too much of an issue."

Oikawa hummed again, smirking at Iwaizumi. "Maybe I just like dancing with Iwa-chan!"

They'd broken apart eventually when their food had come, Oikawa sliding back into their seat with that peppy little bounce in his step that he always had, Iwaizumi sitting back down with a faint tinge of embarrassment. The waitress had found it endearing, if anything, giggling nonetheless.

Iwaizumi had expected Oikawa to pester one of the other two into it eventually, but he spared them both.

And Oikawa, who had plans for an hour or two with people who none of the three others had even really even talked to, would be giving them just enough time for their second attempt at cooking while he was off (probably drinking or something akin to that, Iwaizumi was sure).

For the second time that day, they'd all managed to end up in the kitchen, staring hopelessly at a box. Cakes were easier than breakfast foods, though. As long as you measured everything right and mixed things in the right order, it would really be edible no matter what.

Within the first three minutes of cooking, Hanamaki had broken two eggs and Matsukawa had given up and was sitting on the floor looking at his phone. Iwaizumi debated doing the same.

They didn't run into any other problems until it was time to actually put the cake in the oven (which was generally the time when most people concluded that they were _done_ baking a cake). Hanamaki, who had an unexplained fear of ovens, forced Matsukawa off the floor to make him put the cake in. The cake went in the oven just fine, without anybody getting burned, anyway, and Iwaizumi had been willing to call it done, setting the timer and letting the cake cook.

"We could have bought a cake," Hanamaki reminded them, still sitting a distance away from the now-closed oven.

"Where's the fun in that? And the amount of sentiment? There's no sentiment in _buying_ a cake." Matsukawa sat back on the floor.

Iwaizumi shrugged in agreement, even if he wasn't sure who he was agreeing with.

By the time they had about forty minutes left, the timer on the oven went off. Hanamaki, moving back to his safe place _away_ from the oven, instructed Matsukawa to take the cake out.

They ran into their next problem when it became blatantly obvious that the cake was far from finished.

"What do we do _now?_ " Matsukawa pushed the cake back into the oven, closing it and staring at the timer with a contemplating look. "I went to school for twelve years and never learned how to handle this situation."

"Maybe if you payed attention in class you'd know what to do about this. But that solution is dumb and takes forever," Hanamaki went back over to the oven. "We _could_ just put the oven on a higher heat for like, ten minutes."

"That's the worst idea that you've ever had," Iwaizumi disagreed, watching their boyfriend do just that.

Hanamaki shrugged. "I'm not hearing a 'no'."

Their solution would potentially end incredibly badly, but it was what they'd somehow decided to go with regardless.

Iwaizumi settled for sitting down at the table and pulling out his phone to wait and see if he should have disagreed with Hanamaki.

Matsukawa joined him, sitting down across from him and slouching back in his chair. "Do you think the rings were a good idea? Or are we being too sappy with all of this?"

Iwaizumi turned off his phone, shrugging. "He seemed happy with it. So far today, nothing's _actually_ gone wrong. We can't cook for shit, but everything's been alright, I think." Honestly, Iwaizumi was kind of proud of how their cooking had gone.

"Birthdays are important to him," Hanamaki joined in from where he was sitting on the counter. "I don't get why, but they're a big deal to Oikawa. But I think everything's gone well so far, too."

"Maybe he just likes birthdays? He's a pretty big drama queen, of course he'd like them."

"Maybe," Iwaizumi agreed. "He's always liked them, but he never really thought they were a big deal until…like, the year before we started high school."

Matsukawa shrugged back, seeming to drop the subject. The timer on the oven went off again and Hanamaki eyed it, not making any move to get the cake. Iwaizumi stood up, taking it out and checking it. He didn't know much about cakes, but he called it good enough.

Matsukawa and Hanamaki were insistent on decorating the cake. Iwaizumi left them to it.

"You _didn't_ ," Iwaizumi mumbled, looking away from the cake and then back to it like it would go away.

"We _did,_ " Matsukawa seemed pretty damn proud of himself for putting a Pepe on the side of a birthday cake. "And it's too late to go back now. I mean, we wrote his name on it, too."

"You didn't spell his name right."

" _Goddammit._ "

"I'm sure Okawa will love his cake," Iwaizumi assured them dryly, letting it go and turning around when the door opened.

Oikawa dropped his keys onto the counter, turning to grin at Hanamaki. "Cease your worrying, Oikawa-sama has arrived at last. You don't need to agonize over my absence any longer."

"I wasn't agonizing," Hanamaki assured him coolly. Oikawa tsked, a look of faux offence on his face. Iwaizumi was just a little bit certain that Oikawa was at least a little bit drunk.

Their boyfriend shrugged off his coat, putting his keys on the counter. He paused, laughing and raising an eyebrow. "You made a cake," he said, glancing over at the three of them.

Iwaizumi (though he was obviously proud of their perfect cake) shrugged and scratched the back of his neck. "It's just a normal cake, but…yeah."

"Just a normal cake!" Oikawa's drama-queen made an appearance and he exaggerated a gasp. " _Hardly._ This is a cake made with all your _love_ for the _brilliant and amazing_ Oikawa-san!"

"Stop referring to yourself in the third person," Matsukawa stood up and grabbed plates out of the cupboards. "It's weird."

"Why do people eat cake on birthdays? Why cake? What's the reason?"

"Shut up, Takahiro."

Iwaizumi had decided that he was going to consider the day a success. Oikawa seemed just as honestly happy as he had that morning and nothing had gone wrong (save for the probably-stained spot on their counter), and he couldn't think of anything that could go wrong now that it was already past dinner.

Oikawa (who had teased Matsukawa and Hanamaki for the misspelling on the cake) was sprawled across the couch, eyes planted on an alien documentary that he must have seen at least a hundred times before.

"How is this still interesting to you? You must have it memorized by now"

Hanamaki had retreated to the kitchen to at least get started on an essay that was due soon but had been put off and Matsukawa was sitting on the side of the couch that Oikawa wasn't covering with his lanky body. Oikawa's feet hung off the middle of the couch instead of being on top of Mattsun the way that he normally would have done.

His hair spilled over the side of the couch on the side where his head was, tickling Iwaizumi's neck from where he was sitting on the floor.

"Because it's an interesting movie!" Oikawa declared passionately. "Nobody can _not_ believe in aliens after seeing this piece of art."

 _Don't get him started,_ Iwaizumi thought halfheartedly. _He'll rant about the aliens for days._

His alien rants weren't anything that they hadn't heard before, obviously, and they were somewhat more interesting than the alien movie that they'd all seen at least twenty times this year alone, but Iwaizumi would probably still avoid them if given the chance. When he started, he never stopped.

"You're a fucking nerd," Iwaizumi interrupted him, placing a hand over his mouth.

Oikawa batted the hand away. "You say that now, but I'll convince you of the aliens someday!" He was silent for a wonderful handful of seconds before he started talking again. "Iwa-chan, come on the couch. I want to cuddle and Mattsun won't."

"And I will?"

"Damn right, you will!"

Iwaizumi rolled his eyes without any real irritation behind the action, clambering up to join Oikawa on the couch. It took a matter of a few seconds for him to be absolutely covered in boyfriend, but he wasn't honestly complaining. He wouldn't admit that any sooner than he would admit his pride over their shitty cake. Just because Oikawa always smelled warm and just because maybe Iwaizumi enjoyed being this close to them didn't mean that he was going to say it.

He was pretty sure they knew, anyway.

Oikawa seemed to have dismissed the alien movie, resting his head on Iwaizumi's shoulder.

"Iwa-chan,"

Iwaizumi feigned interest in Area 51.

" _Iwa-chan,"_

Like hell they kept aliens there.

" _Hajime,"_ Oikawa flat out whined. Iwaizumi turned his head to look at him, raising an eyebrow.

"Can I help you?"

"Thanks," he said, the whining and drama dispersed from his voice. "For today. It was nice. You're all really cute, putting all that effort into cooking and everything. I had a good day."

"Yeah," Iwaizumi mumbled, wondering why he felt like he was close to blushing. "Of course. You're always great on our birthdays, of course we did the best we could on your birthday. They're important to you," he added.

Oikawa was silent for a couple of seconds, looking like he was thinking that over. "Yeah. I guess. They're _supposed_ to be important to everyone. It's only once a year, you've gotta make the most of it." He paused, breaking their eye contact to glance at the television. "And you know you made it another year and all that dumb stuff. You only get so many of them, and you don't celebrate them forever, so I don't see why you _shouldn't_ do something good for them."

Iwaizumi was glad that the other two were apparently listening, because he was still processing the reply.

Matsukawa poked their boyfriend's stomach with his foot. "Then I'm glad we made the most of today."

Oikawa grinned cheekily again, and Iwaizumi couldn't tell if it was to make the moment pass or if he was going to say something stupid.

"Today's not over _just_ yet," he practically purred, leaning forward to press his lips to Iwaizumi's. He pulled back just as quickly, grin widening. "But we can keep watching the movie, obviously. It _is_ a really interesting movie."

A textbook shut from the kitchen and Hanamaki showed up at the end of the couch, giving Oikawa the same eye-roll that Iwaizumi had given him minutes before. "Pause your alien movie and stop being coy," he mumbled, watching Oikawa laugh.

Iwaizumi stood up, letting Oikawa wrap himself around him so that he wouldn't tumble off the couch. For all of Oikawa's lanky limbs and height, he wasn't heavy enough that Iwaizumi dropped him. Oikawa's laughter picked back up and Iwaizumi didn't bother to hush him or stop him when Oikawa reached out to grab Matsukawa's hand and pull him up off the couch to pull him with them.


End file.
